As was expected after the 1st IND vs NZ ODI a couple of days back, where Washington Sundar picked up an injury, that he would be replaced by another all-rounder. And that is exactly what happened on Wednesday for the 2nd ODI in Rajkot, where fast bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy took over.
Nitish Kumar Reddy gets game time
Skipper Shubman Gill announced at the toss, that this was the only change Team India went in with for the encounter. Meanwhile, the selectors had named Ayush Badoni as a replacement in the squad, but of course he was not preferred. One of the other reasons why Nitish Kumar Reddy was picked could be, India need to look for alternatives to Hardik Pandya, who has become injury-prone in the last year or so, and is vital for the balance of the side.
As far as the toss is concerned, NZ opted to bowl first on a wicket that could potentially have a lot of runs in it. Skipper Gill was more than happy to bat first, and even said, that the wicket might just get slower in the second innings. He said, “We would actually have preferred to bat first, based on the last few games here. Even yesterday there wasn’t much dew, and the players feel the surface tends to slow down as the innings goes on, so batting first looked the better option.”
Playing XIs
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill(c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
New Zealand (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Hay(w), Michael Bracewell(c), Zakary Foulkes, Jayden Lennox, Kyle Jamieson, Kristian Clarke.
